


Love Among the Ruins

by CarbonInsolence



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Depression, Drug Use, F/M, Flower Child Harry, Forced Prostitution, Horror, Innocent Harry, M/M, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, Sad Louis, he's cute though, niall's a slut, sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-11
Updated: 2014-07-02
Packaged: 2018-01-24 10:18:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1601279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarbonInsolence/pseuds/CarbonInsolence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis looks at Harry and realises that he should not be alive. He should not have won his Hunger Games.</p><p>No one decent ever wins the games.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

The first time that Louis Tomlinson sees Harry Styles in person is when he visits District Seven on his Victory Tour. He’s looking at a mountain of profiteroles covered in chocolate and surrounded by mini cheese cakes with a sense of awe that only a very new victor can possess. Soon they’ll just become another part of the endless functions that the Capitol forces them to go to. Louis smiles bitterly. He thought he would be given his life back when he won but really it was just the start of a different type of games.

‘What are you smiling at?’ Johanna appears next to him with Finnick at her side.

‘Just…’ Louis shrugs noncommittally.

Johanna looks at him with concern before turning back to Finnick. ‘I haven’t congratulated you yet?’ she says.

‘I didn’t think congratulations were in order.’ Finnick looks at her.

Johanna shakes her head. ‘Getting someone through the games is tough,’ she says. She regards harry who’s just dropped a soup ladle back into the pot splashing everyone around him. He looks mortified but the Capitol girl laughs and starts to flirt with him. He rushes away from her as soon as possible. ‘Especially someone like that.’

‘Someone like what?’ Finnick asks.

‘You know what I mean,’ she says. ‘He’s not like us.’

Finnick shrugs. ‘He’s different to us, definitely. I have a feeling that getting him through the games won’t be the hardest part of all this. It’ll be getting him through the rest of his life.’

Louis agrees. There’s something about Harry which he can’t quite put his finger on.

-

_Louis completely disregarded Harry when he was reaped for the seventieth Hunger Games. Sure, District Four was a career district, albeit not in the same way as One and Two. Four found no glory in the games, they just trained for them. But Harry just looked so vulnerable. When his name was called out he had frozen like a dear in headlights and when he stood on the stage he shook. The girl next to him was bigger than him and much more muscled. Harry was small and only fifteen. Louis was almost shocked that no-one volunteered for him, but then maybe he didn’t have anyone eligible._

_Either way, Harry was nothing special. Louis took no notice of him. He only caught brief glimpses of him at the training centre He was clumsy and tripped over nothing too often. It was Louis’ second year as mentor, Johanna’s fourth. She had taken to pointing out the people who were going to die at the Cornucopia._

_‘That curly kid,’ she said one evening. ‘That young Career. He’ll die in the first five minutes. The girl and the boy from Twelve. The thirteen year old from six.’_

_‘Our kids,’ Louis says._

_‘Our kids,’ Johanna agrees._

_They look at each other for a minute. Both of their tributes are twelve. They have no chance._

_Finnick is more confident. ‘My female tribute will win,’ he says. ‘Shay will win. I have a winner.’_

_Johanna and Louis agree somewhat bitterly. Shay is big and strong. She wields a spear like it’s an extension of her own arm._

_Shay gets a ten. The boy from One matches her. The girl from Two gets a nine and the boy gets an eight._

_Louis and Johanna’s Tributes both get six._

_Harry gets a five, the drawn lowest with the boy from Twelve._

-

It’s not until Louis has a conversation with Harry that he realises what it is that’s wrong with him. What it is that Finnick hasn’t told him.

Harry is mad.

He doesn’t notice it straight away.

‘Go and talk to him,’ Johanna says. ‘Let the press get some photographs of you with the current victor. It’ll help us with sponsors in six months.’

Louis sighs. He doesn’t really know what to say to him but he sidles up to him anyway.

‘Hi!’

Harry whips around spilling wine everywhere. Louis catches real fear in his eyes and curses to himself. He should have known better than to sneak up on a new victor like that.

‘Oops.’ Harry says looking at the floor where the wine is in a puddle.

‘I’m sorry,’ Louis takes the glass from him and sets it on the table. ‘I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.’

‘There’s wine on the floor.’ Harry says like he’s devastated.

‘Sorry,’ Louis apologises. ‘That was me.’

‘But…’ Harry looks confused. ‘How did it get there?’

‘You were…’ Louis frowns. ‘You were just holding a glass and you spilt it.’

‘Oh,’ Harry’s face falls like a lost puppy. ‘I’ve always been a bit stup….’ He trails of and looks at something in the distance, alarmed.

Louis turns to look at what he’s staring at. It’s a wall.

‘You okay, mate?’ He says to Harry.

‘Yeah, I just, I thought…’ He trails of again and looks at his shoes like there the most interesting thing in the world.

Louis doesn’t know what to do.

Harry perks up suddenly. ‘Have you seen the flowers?’

‘What flowers,’ Louis asks.

‘The ones on the table,’ Harry sounds ecstatic and eyes are wide. ‘Let me show you.’

Harry takes his hand and literally drags him to one of the buffet tables. ‘Look, look, look,’ He says pointing at the bouquet in the middle of the table. He’s almost hysterical. ‘Look, look, look!’

Louis opens and closes his mouth. ‘They’re beautiful,’ he finally manages.

‘I know!’ Harry says happily he’s looking at Louis but his eyes aren’t focusing. It’s like he’s forgotten Louis there and is just taking to himself. ‘Finnick and Madge say that tributes can have a talent and I want to do flower arranging with mine. I want to mix together tulips and lilies and orchids. Madge says I can mix together whatever I …’ And then he trails of again like he’s forgotten what he was saying.

He stares at the floor and Louis doesn’t really know what to do.

‘There’s wine on the floor.' Harry says. ‘It looks like blood.’

Louis looks.

There’s nothing on the floor.

-

_Harry’s interview the night before the Games begin is so plain that Louis only remembers Harry tripped on the way out._

_Louis and Johanna cling onto each other on the sofa the night before the games. Blight passes out drunk in his room._

_The two tributes cry the next morning when they are handed over to the peace keepers._

_‘Don’t,’ Johanna says. ‘You’ll look weak.’_

_Johanna and Louis sit in the mentor’s office and watch as the arena is revealed._

_They both gasp._

_There’s snow everywhere and no trees._

_‘Oh God,’ Finnick says._

_The countdown starts._

_Johanna and Louis’ tributes are both dead fifty-six seconds after the games start. The boy dashes for a rucksack and is beheaded by the boy from Eleven and the girl doesn’t run fast enough from the girl from One._

_Harry runs in the opposite direction to the Cornucopia and disappears into the snowy mist with nothing._

_The remaining careers slaughter anyone who tries to enter the Cornucopia. Shay, Finnick’s other tribute and Harry’s female counterpart is with them. The fighting ends after ten minutes._

_Louis drops his head to the desk. Fifty-six seconds and it was all over. Johanna sits very still. Madge and Finnick look at them both sympathetically._

_Louis wonders what it must be like for them. He wonders what it must be like to have a winning tribute. He looks at Shay. She’s the biggest Career there. It’s obvious she’s going to win._

_But she doesn’t survive the night._

_The careers’ slit her throat in her sleep. She’s too much of a threat._

_Finnick sits in shock. ‘That’s not… that’s not…’_

_‘Fair?’ Johanna asks. She and Louis are required to watch so they might as well watch in the mentor’s office. ‘Nothing about this is fair. Our tributes were twelve. They were meant to be at home playing but they died in the arena. Is that fair?’_

_‘’Arry,’ Madge says._

_‘Yeah,’ Finnick visibly shakes himself. ‘Yeah, we’ve still got Harry.’_

_Louis doesn’t have the heart to tell Finnick that Harry’s probably the worst tribute there now that both of Twelve and his own kids are dead._

-

It’s Madge who finds Louis talking to Harry. He seems to have forgotten about the non-existent blood on the floor and has gone back to discussing which flowers are his favourite.

His face lights up even more when he spots Madge. ‘Madge braids flowers into my hair sometimes,’ he says. ‘But only when my mummy and sister aren’t there to do it.’

Madge smiles at him and says something incoherent that Louis can’t understand. Maybe Harry does though because he lets her lead him off to some other part of the hall.

Finnick sidles up beside him. ‘I see you met Harry.’

‘Yeah,’ Louis says. He looks at Finnick sadly. ‘He seems sweet.’

‘He’s so…’ Finnick sighs. ‘I don’t know what to do with him. I don’t know how to help him.’

Louis has no answer. ‘What if Snow wants him? What if he want him to-?’

‘He can’t,’ Finnick says. ‘Harry will never be able to handle that.’

‘But what if he does,’ Louis says.

‘Then we’ll take his clients.’ Finnick says. ‘You’ll do that for me won’t you.’

‘Of course,’ Louis says. ‘But that might not be enough. The clients might not like that and if they don’t like that, Snow won’t let us.’

Finnick closes his eyes. ‘He’s so young.’

‘You were younger.’

‘But I was stronger.’ Finnick says. ‘His Mum says he already had problems. He was already a bit… a bit off. But after the games he lost it.’

‘Who can blame him. What happened to him was… well it was a different type of horror.’

‘He’s a virgin.’

Louis curses. ‘I’ll help him with you. Like you helped me.’

‘You were never like Harry.’ Finnick snaps. Louis sees an apology in his eyes straight away.

They’re both silent for a moment. ‘Can I give Harry your number. I think he needs to talk to people who care. You know lots about flowers right?’

Louis shakes his head. ‘I know nothing. But if you care about him so much I’m sure I can brush up.’

-

_Harry’s hauled up in a cave. He’s not freezing like the other tributes, but he’s going to starve._

_‘There’s no food or tree’s’ Finnick points out stupidly. He’s not stupid. He’s just under stress._

_On the same night Shay dies six more tributes die of hypothermia. By the next day there are just eight left: all the careers (who have found a cave alarmingly close to Harry’s), the boy from Five, the girl from eight and Harry himself._

_‘I wonder how many game makers will die for this.’ Louis says at breakfast._

_The game makers do seem desperate. The day after when the girl from eight dies from the cold they release a pair of  mutant polar bears. Harry’s starving and can’t run that fast, but it doesn’t matter because the boy from five falls. Harry grabs his spear as he runs past and leaves him for the polar bears._

_He makes the mistake of looking back and sees the torso of the boy with the head still half attacked rolling down the hill he’s just run down. He freezes and stares._

_That’s when the careers arrive._

_They don’t see the polar bears through the snowstorm and converge on Harry._

_Harry literally yells at them to watch out._

_They’re half a meter away from him when the polar bears pounce._

_The boy from two is ripped apart. Harry blindly stabs with his spear. The tributes are all too close together and it goes through the heart of the girl from two instead of one of the polar bears. The horror on his face is evident. The boy from ones’ spine is pulled out as harry feels a bite at his leg. He falls to the floor. Everything so close. They’re in a little crowd in the middle of a snowy field and from his computer screen Louis can’t tell who’s dead and who’s alive. The polar bears are just ripping and killing._

_It all ends when the girl from one’s guts fall out of her stomach and onto Harry._

_The final cannon goes off and the polar bears wonder away._

_‘I present to you the winner of the Seventieth Annual Hunger Games, Harry Styles.’_

_Harry stands up somehow despite the bite to his leg. Louis realises with horror that he’s covered head to toe in blood and the intestines of the girl from One are all hanging of his shoulders and around his neck. Harry seems to have realised that some things on him and he looks sideways to see what it is._

_It takes him a couple of seconds to realise that it’s a set of intestines._

_He looks around and realises he’s standing in a pile of limbs._

_He puts his bloody hands over his ears and starts to shriek._

_From the mentors office in the training area Louis wonder’s if he’s ever going to stop._


	2. Chapter Two

Louis still hasn’t gotten used to Harry calling, mainly because he wasn’t used to the phone on the wall yet. It had been there for two years and he had only used it on a handful of occasions, mainly to call Finnick when Johanna or Niall weren’t there to remind him what he had to live for on the dark nights when everything got a little too much.

But Harry calls every day to tell Louis about his flowers or his mum and his sister or even what he had for dinner.

‘Gemma caught a salmon today Lou and brought it home,’ he would say. ‘I’m not sure she was allowed to because usually Salmon go straight to the Capitol because they’re so rare, but she did anyway and mummy made a stew and it was so yum.’

Tonight though Harry was telling him about a certain breed of tulip he was trying to grow. ‘Mag’s says I can grow a tulip which is half purple and half yellow. She’s going to help me start tomorrow. I can press one for you and send it to…’

Every now and then Harry would trail off as if he had forgotten he was talking to Louis but in general he talked and talked which was something Louis liked. He wasn’t much of a talker himself so having Harry talk about so much mundane happy stuff like flowers and fish was nice.

‘What where you saying Haz?’ He asks after the silence stretched on for too long.

‘Oh!’ Harry says. ‘Sorry, I continued in my head. I do that sometimes. It was an accident.’

‘It’s okay.’

‘I was just saying I could press a flower and send it to you.’

Louis smiles. He genuinely thinks of Harry as a good friend now so if something like that makes him happy then so be it, even if he won’t have much use for a pressed flower.

‘Sure Haz,’ Louis says. ‘I’d like that.’

‘Mummy’s run a bath for me so I have to go,’ Harry says. ‘But I’ll see you tomorrow after the re – re – rea…’

He trails of again and Louis catches on that he’s scared. ‘Sure Haz. I’ll see you tomorrow right.’

‘Bye!’ Harry says. ‘See you.’

When Louis put the phone back on the wall he slowly goes upstairs to where Niall is waiting for him.

‘That Harry?’ Niall asks as he folds the last of Louis washing into the draws.

‘Yep,’ Louis says.

‘Is he getting any better?’ Niall asks. He’s never spoken to Harry but he says he seems nice from what Louis’ told him.

‘I don’t think it’s something he’s going to get better from,’ Louis says sadly and Niall frowns at him.

‘Are you okay love?’ He asks.

‘Yeah,’ Louis says. ‘Now I’m with you.’

Louis cups Niall’s mouth and kisses him and Niall sighs into the kiss. Louis lets his hands wonder down to Niall’s arse and he slips his hand down the back of his trousers.

‘Lou,’ Niall says. ‘Louis.’

He pulls away and holds Louis gaze as he slowly drops to his knees. He kisses Louis half hard cock through his clothing and reaches up to unzip the zipper.

‘I want you to be okay,’ he says as he takes Louis cock out.

‘I’m okay when I’m with you,’ Louis says as Niall kisses the tip.

Niall looks up at him and smiles sadly and Louis knows he’s missed the point.

‘I want you to be okay always’ he says before swallowing Louis cock in one go.

Louis thinks he’s going to black out as Niall bobs his head taking him down his throat like he was born to do it.

‘God,’ He moans and time seems to pass too fast.

‘I’m going to come,’ he says after a while.

Niall pulls of his cock and releases it. ‘Not in my mouth you’re not,’ he says taking his top and trousers of. He’s not wearing any underwear and Louis nearly comes at the sight of his arse as he spreads his leg and arches his back as though he’s presenting to him.

Louis reaches out and runs a finger over Niall’s hole. Niall pushes back into the touch.

‘Take your clothes off Lou,’ Niall keens. ‘Please fuck me.’

So Louis does. He finds comfort in Niall in a way that he never thought he could do again after the games. Niall spreads his legs as wide as they go and Louis enters him as he has done so many times before.

After they finish Louis rolls off Niall and turns onto his side to face him. Niall curls into a ball and shuts his eyes. Louis thinks he’s beautiful. He’s pale but the sunset creeping in from the not quite shut curtains casts beams of light over his naked skin. His blond hair is dishevelled, his lips are red and swollen and he has a scattering of bruises over his neck.

Louis recons that Niall is what angels would look like if they existed. After what he’s seen Louis doesn’t think they do.

Niall opens his eyes to look at Louis and suddenly he looks so sad.

‘That was the last time,’ Niall says as they lay back in a post-orgasmic haze.

Louis’ expected this for a while but it hurts more than he thought it would. Perhaps it’s because Niall’s been one of the few people who’s made sex more than just a job to him since he survived the arena. Perhaps it’s because he never realised how much he needed to feel wanted.

‘Niall…’ he says and then stops because he doesn’t know what to say to make him stay. He doesn’t even know why Niall should stay. He’s got nothing left to offer. Sure he has money and a house for his ruthlessness in the arena, but he’s emotionally wiped. He doesn’t know if he’s even really there anymore.

‘I found someone Louis,’ Niall says softly and almost regretfully, because he knows what he’s doing. He knows he’s hurting Louis. ‘He’s wonderful.’

Louis nods. This was always going to happen. It wasn’t like he and Niall were together. They weren’t in a relationship. It was just convenient for both of them - or just convenient for Louis. He needed the human touch after the arena and Niall knew that. He had always been his best friend and there for Louis, so he was there for him then.

‘I’m glad,’ Louis says.

And in a way he is. He’s not good enough for Niall. Not really. Niall is soft and warm and gentle and he’s just… he’s just not. Niall needs someone better. This is a good thing.

‘Tell me about him,’ He asks Niall.

Niall’s face lights up and suddenly he’s off at two hundred miles per hour talking about a boy called Zayn who lives in one of the biggest squatter camps in Seven. Apparently he sells cheap cigarettes that he’s scavenged from the remains of old ones to get by. Niall says that he’s going to take him back to his when he next sees him so he won’t have to live out in the cold anymore. With his teacher training salary Niall thinks that he can pay for them both if he’s careful.

Louis thinks his heart might be breaking a little.

-

The next day is the Reaping and Louis’ drunk.

It’s a new feeling. He wonders if it’s noticeable and it clearly is seeing the way in which Johanna is frowning at him and Blight is looking at him with understanding.

He likes it though. He can’t even remember why he’s sad – for a while anyway. When the Reaping starts he remembers.

The girls go first and Louis not so concerned with that anyway. His families all gone so it doesn’t matter. The girl Reaped is seventeen and skinny. She’s called Cara.

When the boy is Reaped he holds his breath. Niall is eighteen which is only slightly younger than him, but he’s still eligible. He’s paid alright these days since his teacher training course started so he hasn’t taken the Tesserae, but Louis still worries.

Niall isn’t Reaped, a boy called Luke is.

Maybe it’s the alcohol talking but Louis thinks he’s quite beautiful. He’s blond and if he squints he looks a little like Niall.

Louis takes a moment to consider how fucked up that is. There’s this boy who’s about to be thrown to his death in an arena and Louis’ checking him out?

He doesn’t remember how he got to the train but he trips on the way up the stairs and has to cling to the barriers.

‘Tomlinson, Tomlinson, how pissed are you,’ one of the reporters yell as snaps are taken.

Louis briefly see’s Johanna’s horrified face as he’s picked up by his escort Sheila and practically thrown into the train.

‘Whoa,’ Louis says. ‘I’m not really into that rough stuff. Or women.’

Blight guffaws and Sheila opens up a door to the living quarters and shoves Louis, Bight, Johanna and the tributes inside.

 ‘Ouch,’ Louis says as he falls onto a sofa.

Sheila turns on him her orange hair falling out from underneath a comical miniature hat on her head. ‘What in god’s name are you on?’ she says. She has an annoyingly high pitch voice and a ridiculous capitol accent.

Louis shrugs and tries not to slur. ‘I think its whiskey or something. My bad.’

Sheila looks outraged. ‘It’s nine o’clock in the morning Tomlinson. What were you thinking?’

Louis shrugs and Johanna runs her hands through her hair.

‘This just isn’t like you,’ Sheila says. ‘What’s gotten into you?’

Louis shrugs again. ‘Maybe I just don’t care.’ He points at Luke and Cara who are staring at him in shock in realisation that this was the person who was going to try and keep them alive. ‘There going to die anyway.’

At that Cara and Luke look horrified.

‘And Niall doesn’t want me anymore.’

Johanna looks up from where she was looking at her lap. ‘Oh Louis,’ she says.

Then Louis starts to cry and it just doesn’t stop.

He’s aware of Johanna putting her arms around him and Blight getting up to leave the room.

The two tributes are herded out of the room by Sheila who says they’ll start preparations for the Games later on in the train journey and in the mean time they should make themselves at home.

He cries onto Johanna’s shoulder and wonders if Niall knows what he’s done. Maybe he should have said something earlier. Maybe he should have told Niall… or maybe Zayn’s just everything he can’t be anymore. Maybe Zayn’s everything about Louis that the Games destroyed.

‘I love him. I love him Johanna.’

‘I know Lou,’ she says.

‘I love him so much and he doesn’t need me.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi :) I hope you enjoyed that! If you have any comments that would be great! I'm not that great at writing smut so sorry about that bit. I should update again soon :)

**Author's Note:**

> Please feel free to leave me any comments :) It would be much appreciated.
> 
> I will do my best to update as much as possible.


End file.
